Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 80 · UFO Afrinews No 9, February 1994

Strangers in the Garden

Kirstenhof, Cape Town, South Africa

What was reported

Janet, interviewed by Pam Puxley, came to the Cape in 1978/79 and moved to Kirstenhof two years later. One morning while opening the curtains she saw two figures at her neighbour's hedge in what looked like black leather, wearing shiny black egg-shaped helmets that made their heads look too big; the taller was about her height, 1.65 m, the other smaller. She felt watched and frightened, turned to telephone her neighbour Colleen, and when she looked back they were gone. Colleen came out with a police baton; they searched the loose soil where the men had stood, found no footprints, and the locked gate had not been heard. That afternoon Janet invited the 'aliens' aloud to come back. Puxley adds that Janet sleepwalked as a girl, once found outside at the back wall, and bears a leg scar, while daughter Sabine has a scoop mark and recurring daisy-shaped welts.

What Hind made of it

Hind hopes the interview will continue, perhaps with hypnosis; she doubts Sabine's scoop mark proves an attempted abduction but keeps it as a possible clue.

Explanation offered
Janet rejected deep-sea divers and motorcyclists; her mother once attributed her leg blister to a hot-water bottle

In their words

  • Their helmets really did not look like motorcycle helmets at all.

    Janet, spread 11

  • It was like an egg shape, not coming to a point but it made their heads look too big for their bodies.

    Janet, spread 11

  • So she and I went around and looked but we couldn't find one single footprint.

    Janet, spread 11

Cross references

  • Gibraltar red-light sightings 1974/75 (same witness, 09-11-2)
  • Sabine's welts addendum

Connected

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 9 (February 1994), spread 11-12

Nearby

Stories within 60 km